We have a database (Oracle 8.1.6.2) on SunSolaris now with AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1 character set.

Now, we are planning to convert it to UNICODE character set.

Is it possible to convert a AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1 database to a UNICODE character set database???

If yes, could we use the ALTER DATABASE command
to do the database conversion?

What is the commonly used UNICODE type (is it UTF8) ?

If I change it to any of the UNICODE types, then what other changes do I have to make.....any increase in the field lengths, etc...

Thanks in advance!

02-07-2001, 10:56 AM

rotem_fo

Hi,
you can export the database from the 8.1.6 machine into any machine with any charcter set.
I personally took an export file from Oracle 7.3.4 with charset WE8ISO8859P1 and imported the file into a machine with Oracle 8.0.5 charset IW8ISO8859P8.

You have to remmeber to change the charcter set in the export file according to Oracle's charset table.

Edit the export file in hex editor. The second and the third byte in the file define the character set used for
the export.